Draft-equalizer.



No. 656,243. Patented'Auu. 2|, I900. T. BRINKLEY & u. A. WETBICH. DRAFTEQUALIZER.

(Application filed Jan. 11, 1900.)

(No Model.)

THE NORRIS PEYERS CO PHOTO L|THO., WASHINGTON D- C.

THOMAS I. BRINKLEY AND DANIEL A. XVETRICH, OF STUART, IOWA.

DRAFT-EQUALIZER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 656,243, dated August21, 1900.

Application filed .T an'uary 11, 1900. Serial No- 1,073. (No model.) 7

T0 ztZZ whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that we, THOMAS I. BRINK- LEY and DANIEL A. Wnrnron,citizens of the United States,residin g at Stuart,in the county ofGuthrie and State of Iowa, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Draft-Equalizers, of which the following is aspecification.

The object of this invention is, first, to provide a draft-equalizer ofsimple, durable, inexpensive construction, especially designed for usein connection with corn-cultivators, whereby the downdraft upon thecultivatorbeam occasioned by the use of a straight doubletree attachedto the cultivator-tongue is prevented.

A further object is to provide a draftequalizer so connected with thetongue that the draft is distributed and not all thrown upon one bolt orone point of connection with the tongue.

Our invention consists in the construction, arrangement, andcombination, with the tongue of a corn-cultivator or the like, of aseries of levers and evener=bars so arranged and combined with eachother as to accomplish the objects stated, as hereinafter more fully setforth, pointed out in our claims, and illustrated in the accompanyingdrawing, in which the entire draft-equalizing device is shown inperspective attached to a vehicletongue.

Referring to the accompanying drawing, we have used thereference-numeral 10 to indicate the tongue of ordinary construction.Attached to the tongue is a bracket 11, which is secured by a bolt 12 tothe under surface of the tongue and projects at right angles to thetongue, with its ends curved upwardly and outwardly from the tongue. Oneach end of this bracket is pivoted a lever 13. The inner ends of theselevers are extended in a substantially-horizontal plane to a point nearthe tongue. The central portions of these levers incline outwardly anddownwardly to a considerable degree, while the ends thereof at 14project straight downwardly and are provided with a series ofperforations 15.

On top of the tongue a short evener-bar 16 is pivoted, and links 17areprovided for pivotally connecting the ends of the lever-bar 1G withthe inner ends of the levers 13. At

of the levers 13.

In practical use, and assuming that the evener were applied to thetongue of the cultivator or plow, it is obvious that on account of thedownward bend of the levers 13 draftanimals may be attached to thelevers 13 by means of sin gletrees connected with the openings 15, sothat the draft will be substantially in a straight line and notdownwardly, as would be the case if the draft-animals were attached bymeans of a straight doubletree pivoted to the tongue. Where thedraft-animals are thus attached, the downward draft upon the tongue ishighly objectionable in that it tends to draw the plow or cultivatorshovels too deeply into the ground and the forward end of the tongue isforced downwardly, thereby throwing the draft to a great degree in adownward direction upon the draft-animals, whereas by means of theappliance shown in the drawing in this application the draft is appliedin such a manner that the tongue remains in a substantially-horizontalplane and all of the pull of the draft-animals is applied directly toadvancing the cultivator and the draft-animals are relieved of theobjectionable downwardpressure accompanying the use of a straightevener-bar on the tongue of the cultivator. Furthermore, by the use oftwo evener-bars-one above and one below the tongue-we have produced anequalizer of great strength and durability in that the strain upon theparts of the equalizer occasioned by the draft is not thrown entirely onthe bracket which supports the levers; but by thus providing anevener-bar for the inner ends as well as for the outer ends of thelevers the draft is divided between the bracket which supports theevener-bar 16 and the bracket which supportsthe evenerbar 18. Hence thebracket 11 need notbe made cumbersome and heavy, as would be necessaryif the two evener-loars were not provided. It is also obvious that bythe use of two evener-bars arranged and combined as shown thedraft-animal that falls behind to a slight degree is not handicapped byshortage in levers, as is the case with the ordinary equalizer,becausewith the two evcnerbars arranged as shown it is obvious that when one ofthe evener-bars on the side of the draft-animal that fails behindprojects in a rearward direction the other evener-bar on the same sidewill project in a forward direction, thus counteracting the tendency toa shortage of leverage and equalizing the draft.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim, and desire to secureby Letters Patent of the United States therefor, is-

l. The combination, with avehiclc-tongue, of two levers pivotallyconnected with the tongue,and evener-bar pivoted to the tongue, meansfor connecting the ends of the evenerbar with the inner ends of the saidlevers, a second evener-bar pivoted to the tongue, and means forconnecting the outer ends of said levers with the said secondevener-bar, substantially as, and for the purposes stated.

2. An improved draft-equalizer, comprising in combination, a vehicletongue, a bracket 11 fixed to the tongue, levers 13 fulcrumed to theends of said brackets, inclined outwardly and downwardly therefrom, withthe ends thereof extending approximately straight downwardly, a shortevener-bar pivoted to the top of the tongue in the rear of said levers,links for connecting the ends of said eveuer-bar with the inner ends ofsaid levers, and a long evener-bar 18 pivoted to the under surface ofthe tongue,and links 19 for connecting its outer ends with the outerends of the levers 13, arranged and combined substantially in the mannerset forth, and for the purposes stated.

THOMAS I. BRINKLEY. I DANIEL A. \VETRICH.

\Vitnesses:

T. E. ORooKs, H. L. IIAOKTHORN.

